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One of the most legendary live recordings from The Doors is finally coming out in its most definitive form.
Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters, due September 8, is the last word on the group's pivotal dates at the San Francisco club The Matrix - among the earliest concert recordings of the group. The 3CD or 5LP/7" box set will include, for the first time, all of club owner Peter Abram's surviving original master tapes of the performances, remastered by the band's longtime engineer Bruce Botnick.
The Doors' instantly recognizable stage presence can be felt on these performances, only months after the release of their self-titled debut and predating the breakthrough single release of that album's "Light My Fire" (which would feature in their controversial national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show that fall). In addition to the lauded songs from The Doors - among them "Break On Through (to the Other Side)," "The Crystal Ship" and the epic "The End" - singer Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore were already integrating into their set songs that would be recorded on that year's follow-up Strange Days, including "People Are Strange," "Moonlight Drive" and "When the Music's Over."
Abram knew he had something special with the Matrix recordings he captured, but it would be decades before anyone heard any of them officially. After years of bootlegs, two tracks made it onto a 1997 career-spanning box set. A decade later, to mark the 40th anniversary of the shows, a 2CD set offered many of the Matrix performances for the first time - but fans and critics debated the quality of the sources used (and ultimately discovered that the set was created from third-generation copies of the original tapes). Restoration was finally underway a decade after that, with 15 tracks selected for a pair of Record Store Day exclusive LPs released in 2017 and 2018. Now, all 37 performances completely fill a gap in the story of one of the most defining bands of their era.
Rhino's supplied track listing reflected the vinyl release, in which "Bags' Groove" is included on a separate single-sided 7". The CD should put everything in chronological order. The label also indicated the set will be limited to 14,000 numbered copies on vinyl and 21,000 on CD. Your pre-order links are below.
Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters (Elektra/Rhino, 2023)
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
5LP/7": Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
* previously unreleased
** first time released from original master tapes
Disc 1: March 7, 1967 - First (1-7) and Second (8-14) Sets
- Bags' Groove *
- Back Door Man
- My Eyes Have Seen You *
- Soul Kitchen
- All Blues (Instrumental) *
- Get Out of My Life Woman **
- When the Music's Over *
- Close to You **
- Crawling King Snake **
- I Can't See Your Face in My Mind
- People Are Strange
- Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
- The Crystal Ship
- Twentieth Century Fox
Disc 2: March 7, 1967 - Second Set continued (1-3) and Third Set (4-7); March 8 or 9, 1967 (8); March 10, 1967 - First Set (9-14)
- Moonlight Drive
- Summer's Almost Gone *
- Unhappy Girl
- Woman is a Devil/Rock Me Baby **
- Break On Through (to the Other Side) **
- Light My Fire
- The End
- The End (Partial)/Let's Feed Ice Cream to the Rats
- My Eyes Have Seen You
- Soul Kitchen **
- I Can't See Your Face In My Mind **
- People Are Strange **
- When the Music's Over
Disc 3: March 10, 1967 - First Set continued (1-2). Second Set (3-7) and Third Set (8-10)
- Money **
- Who Do You Love **
- Moonlight Drive *
- Summer's Almost Gone
- I'm a King Bee **
- Gloria **
- Break On Through (to the Other Side) *
- Summertime (Instrumental) **
- Back Door Man **
- Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) *
Disc 1, Track 13 and Disc 2, Track 11 released on The Doors Box Set - Elektra/Rhino 62123, 1997
Disc 1, Tracks 1, 3, 6, 8-9 and 12-14; Disc 2, Tracks 4-7 and 9-13; and Disc 3, Tracks 1-2, 4-6 and 8-9 released as Live At The Matrix '67 - Bright Midnight/Rhino R2 516205, 2008
Disc 1, Tracks 2, 4 and 12-14 and Disc 2, Tracks 6-7 released as Live At The Matrix - March 7, 1967 - Bright Midnight/Rhino R1 559094, 2017
Disc 1, Tracks 10-11; Disc 2, Tracks 1, 3, 8-9 and 13 and Disc 3, Track 4 released as Let's Feed Ice Cream to the Rats: Live At The Matrix Part 2 - March 7 & 10, 1967 - Bright Midnight/Rhino R1 563063, 2018
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ABOUT TIME.
this is the most important release of this year.
I'm hoping it will be available via streaming, as in Amazon Music or Spotify.
Very excited to hear this great news. Epic.
only 21,000 made get it while its $30
For what it’s worth, I find the track notes a bit, well very, confusing :
1. Disc 1, Track 1 & 3 are listed as previously unreleased (*) but are then listed incorrectly as previously released on the 2008 release
2. Disc 1, Track 10 now listed as March 7, 2nd set. The 2018 version is listed as coming from as 1st set.
3. Disc 2, Track 13 now listed as March 10, 1st set. The 2018 version is listed as coming from as 2nd set.
4. Disc 3, Track 1-2 now listed as March 10, 1st set. The 2008 version is listed as coming from as 2nd set.
5. Disc 3, Track 8-9 now listed as March 10, 3rd set. The 2008 version is listed as coming from as 2nd set.
will have ill wait the the discs. 2 shows first and last 3 sets. still the only REAL archive release this year, rhino info is a mess/wrong.
The sound of this OK but barley passable in my opinion. The sound is rather murky and unnaturally muddy. I hope you have an equalizer as boosting the high mid-range will bring it up closer to proper bootleg levels. I'm not saying this is real bad, but if they used the master tape, it was a missed opportunity to put out a good recording of this. Cripes. It looks like we'll never see a great offical issue of this.
It's realty sad the awful sounding stuff coming out. We had the loudness wars, boosting everything to distortion and brick-walling, now we have the polar opposite. They really need to learn to master properly or just leave it alone. Put the tape in and hit record. Just leave it alone, please, and stop trying to improve the sound, The processing is noticeable and annoying. The masterers are supposed to match the sound of the original, not alter it unnaturally, trying to improve it. I can hear this.
They probably used that infamous noise reduction which cuts out any and all hiss but also cuts out any brightness and makes the recording sound pushed back and less forward, like a veil is over the speaker. The bootleggers have, and do, a much, much better job. The recording industry needs to learn what they are doing. I'm not recommending those awful gray market issues. They are the worst of the worst of the worst. I'm saying the bootlegs of this are at least a little better. I certainly will keep my cassette copy for this. It sounds better than this so-called master.
Most people wouldn't even notice this because they listen to music on computer speakers that don't reproduce actual sound quality. Yep, it's become a real horror story.
Docked 1 star for no plastic hubbs and docked another star for bad mastering. By the way, these people should know what they are doing. On the mono mix of Strange Day, Botnick mentions no noise reduction was used. I believe him. I can hear it.
You are very right. This is very sub-par and utterly disappointing.